Watch this space for more information on the accompanying Zine ‘BISM‘.

Presented by Michaelis Galleries, A Shot to the Arse explores the interrelationship between art and change; how artists process, comment on, react to or transform upheaval, violence, destruction and everyday experience.

Curated by Belinda Blignaut, it seeks to be a document of the spirit of our time, taking into account universal cycles of history repeating itself, and examining what counter culture is to us in 2012 – our emotional responses and cultural equivalents of political opposition running counter to a social mainstream.

In keeping with this subversive motivation, explorations of the theme will see a number of manifestations, through installation, sculpture, collage, drawings, gif-art, sound-works and performance. The main part of the exhibition will primarily be housed in the traditional gallery space – itself a site of contention – in which a unique provocative experience will be created exploring restriction, decay, growth and adaptation; from the human to the organic to the machine. However, in an effort to engage their art in an active conversation with society and the street, artists such as Steven Cohen will also facilitate a number of city interventions.

The exhibition extends further through the production of BISM, a D.I.Y special limited edition book on sale during the exhibition that contains original signed artwork by various artists. Copies of some of the pages, or visual slogans, will be displayed around the city to move the impact of A Shot to the Arse beyond the gallery. An ongoing document, Dirty Boots forms an organic on-line archive, allowing the project to grow should it want to do so.